First off, this is about as perfect a "box set" physically as you can get. It's LP sized, the box is sturdy and well constructed. The book slides out easily and is beautifully constructed with a strong binding and the photos and text are on quality paper that will not deteriorate after reading, or repeated reading. The 4 discs are secure in the inside covers of the book and in their own sleeves with original and alternate Abbey Road cover glossy photos, and the discs themselves have the classic green apple label on the two album discs, and the cut apple on the 2 extra tracks discs. And to top it all off, no marbles or scarves!
Overall, I don't think there's a better configuration out there that they could have used for this release. It's a shame that the Sgt. Pepper and White Album boxes were not like this one.
Onto the 5.1 mix. Well, if the past Beatles releases other than "Love" left us frustrated and annoyed at what could have been (1+, Sgt. Pepper), you could not help think about just how they would treat this final Beatles album, the one that was made on the most modern (at the time) equipment with the most audio tracks available in the studio. Would we get the cringe worthy "homage to the stereo mix" or would we possibly get something special?
When I first fired it up in my big room (and figured out that it was playing in stereo), I got it to DTS-Master Audio and listened and wasn't quite sure if my back speakers were working! Not a good sign. I then turned up the volume. NICE! As I went through the album song by song, an album that I loved and played to death in the past but haven't played in years due to burn-out, I started hearing stuff clearer and cleaner than I had remembered. Instruments and voices were more defined and detailed and exposed to the point at times when I did not expect to hear what I heard. Instead of every vocal being in the front, backgrounds were in the back, and things like the moog was in the back when it made sense "he sneaks up from behind...". Someone who made the mix GOT IT! It's a no brainer to put Sun King's crickets in the backs, but in this mix, there is important stuff back there. To me, that's the sign of a good mix. If you can kill the rears and miss stuff, then it's a good mix. If you kill the rears and everything's still there in the fronts, what's the point? And we all know there are surround mixes that do just that.
The "Surround is a gimmick" folks will point to the "Her Majesty" walk around the room, but if you recall the original stereo mix went across the front speakers, so this is merely an extension of that walk. So fuck them!
Needless to say, this is a 10. I am not going to get into the mix on each song, that's something others can do. All I will say is that I am glad I lived long enough to hear this, but I am saddened that other fans did not. I think of Ed Bishop, who I never met but knew from SHF and was made an honorary Mod here. He wanted so badly to hear the 5.1 White Album but apparently his bout with cancer did not allow that to happen, but I know he would have loved to hear Abbey Road as well. I think of Cai Campbell and the many other quad guys that are no longer here. One day I won't be here, and one day you won't either, but that's all part of the plan, so it goes. The main thing is that when things like this finally come out, no matter how great they are, I always think to myself "It's about time". Where has this been?
This music is part of my memory storage and like many other albums I've heard too many times, I really can't listen to some of it the same way I listened in 1970 or even 1980/90. I was listening to the bonus cuts and tracks and at one time I would have cherished them but today I just sorta cruised through them, jumping around listening to bits here and there because I did not want to increase the burn out as I wanted to save the listening time to the surround mix.
Oh well. Maybe the surround folks will start issuing new albums that we haven't heard so many times and we can really enjoy them.
So, yes, it's a 10. Get it if you can afford it. It's worth it. It's great. It's a winner. And "That's all Folks!"
